Monday, April 16, 2007

Caillou needs a time out and Ruby is a bully.

Actually, it's not so much Caillou that is the problem; it's the adults around him. (You do know Caillou, right? PBS Kids.)

For example, this week, Caillou borrowed some books from the library. And he wrote on them. Caillou returned the books to the library, and cried because he knew he had done something wrong. Great teaching opportunity, right? Wrong. What does the librarian tell him? "It's all right. I know you didn't mean to." Bull crap! Of course he did! "Don't cry, Caillou. It was an accident." Right. The crayons accidentally fell out of his hand and scribbled all over the books.

Now, I'm not saying that she should have banned him from the library or anything. But don't you think something along the lines of, "It was wrong, but we learn from our mistakes. We must treat books with respect, and when we borrow something, we should be extra careful with it." Just anything but, "I know you didn't mean to."

And when Caillou doesn't want to do something, he sometimes pitches a little fit. And so his parents bargain with him. Yeah, we don't do that in this house. A fit guarantees you won't get your way. Gay-ron-tee. (Do they say "pitch a fit" in other parts of the country, or is that a southern thing?" Just in case, "pitches a fit" sort of means "has a tantrum." Only maybe not as bad.)

While I don't think my kids learn responsible behavior from Caillou, I love the calm way his parents always deal with him. I don't like what they say sometimes, but I love how calm they are. They are an inspiration to me. Sort of.

And what's up with Max and Ruby? First of all, where are the parents? Huh?

Next, am I the only one that thinks Ruby is incredibly selfish? Poor Max is over there saying, "hockey" or whatever, over and over the entire show, and Ruby repeatedly tells him no. Just last week, Max was in the sandbox minding his own business. Ruby decides it's beach party time, and tells him to get out. Now, I wasn't watching, but I heard most of it. What it sounded like was, every time Ruby and her accomplice would leave the room to get something for the beach party, Max got back in the sandbox. Then Ruby would come back and tell him to get out again. But...Max was there first! Am I the only one that sees the injustice in this show?

Serves her right to have to eat a piece of worm cake every now and then.

6 comments:

Wendy said...

There are alot of cartoons out there that leave me scratching my head and wondering if my kids should be watching them. What is up with the baby talk on some of them? One of my pet peeves is baby talk. Can't stand it, don't want my kids learning it. What happened to the good ol' days when you didn't have to worry about what cartoons were on?

Joyful Days said...

Caillou, thankfully, has gone from our house. But Max and Ruby live on. I love Max and I think Boo loves him because they are alike. We also watch Charlie and Lola--I love that one! And Little Bear still sometimes.

Oh...& I don't know about those old cartoons. I grew up with Bugs and RoadRunner and there was some stuff hidden in that.

Kelley said...

I completely agree with you about the adults in cartoons. They either make them non-existent, or they look like bumbling idiots, or they just go along with whatever the kid says. (Can you say Rugrats?!)

Caillou was never one of my favorites, mostly because his voice always sounds whiny to me. I agree with Wendy - can't stand baby talk. That's why my kids have virtually never seen Teletubbies.

So glad my youngest is almost 5, and we don't watch a lot of the cartoons geared to preschoolers anymore.

Kristen said...

You crack me up! I agree with you. My kids need to watch shows that are going to teach them good lessons, not that they can squirm out of things. I also can't stand the cartoons that have kids talking sass to their parents! Don't need anymore of that, that's for sure.

Anonymous said...

I was thinking the SAME THING about that Caillou episode. "Didn't mean to," whatever. A book doesn't get accidentally colored in; they may get accidentally spilled on or if Caillou was a little younger, maybe accidentally torn, but the coloring bit was dumb.

It used to be PBS only for us (I have a 2 year old boy) but we've recently discovered Lilo and Stitch and the Doodlebops on Disney Channel so we've changed focus some. I save PBS shows for emergency distractions - we have OnDemand so he can watch Bob the Builder whenever Mommy needs him distracted for a bit! LOL!

Redneck Diva said...

I would rather gouge out my eyeballs with unsharpened pencils than watch Caillou. The whining child and simperingly lenient parents makes me want to scream. It was actually my oldest daughter (probably 6 at the time) who came to me one day and said, "Mom, Caillou is a spoiled brat. Do we have to watch him anymore?"

I'm pretty lenient on the cartoon issue around here, although I have outlawed 2StupidDogs, Ed Edd and Eddy and that horrific show, Mr. Meaty. Other than that, I let 'em run free. SpongeBob is my hero and Bugs Bunny rocks the hizzouse. Rugrats are ridiculous, but when my youngest tried an Angelica fit once and I set her straight...well, let's just say that didn't happen again. :-)

I, too, have wondered where Max and Ruby's parents are. Poor Ruby...I wonder if she's an emancipated minor or if they're just flying under DHS' radar. Poor parentless bunnies.